Odds & Ends

Dateline: Czech Republic—A newly formed travel agency in Prague is offering a unique travel service—vacations for stuffed animals. The Toy Traveling agency was pitched as an idea on the TV reality show “Den D”—a Czech spin-off of the British show “Dragons’ Den” as well as the American show “Shark Tank.” Two of the judges on the show, including a former Czech minister of information, agreed to invest 150,000 crowns (about $7,700) each in the enterprise. Since the episode aired, Toy Traveling’s website (toytraveling.com) has logged nearly 20,000 visitors. For between 90 and 150 euros ($120 to $205), customers can mail their favorite toys to the Czech Republic, where they will be taken on a guided tour of such landmarks as Prague Castle and the Charles Bridge. Tour guides will take pictures to send back with the stuffed animals. In the Premium Package, the inanimate tourists will receive a “massage” and an “aromatherapy” session.

Dateline: Florida—According to the Key West Citizen, a two-car accident is being blamed on a driver who was attempting to shave her bikini area while behind the wheel. State Trooper Gary Dunick told the newspaper that Megan Mariah Barnes was busy shaving her pubic hair when she crashed into the back of a pickup truck on Cudjoe Key, injuring two women. “She said she was meeting her boyfriend in Key West and wanted to be ready for the visit.” Making the situation even odder was the fact that Barnes’ ex-husband was sitting in the passenger seat, holding the steering wheel of the 1995 Thunderbird while the driver wielded her razor. “If I wasn’t there, I wouldn’t have believed it,” said Trooper Dunick. “About 10 years ago, I stopped a guy in the exact same spot who had three or four syringes sticking out of his arm. It was just surreal and I thought, Nothing will ever beat this. Well, this takes it.” After Barnes was arrested, police found out she had just been convicted in an Upper Keys court of DUI and driving with a suspended license. Barnes’ conviction came just one day before her most recent wreck. A judge had ordered Barnes to impound her Thunderbird, and her driver’s license was revoked for five years. Barnes has now been charged with driving with a revoked license, reckless driving, leaving the scene of a wreck with injuries and driving with no insurance.

Dateline: California—An armed robber in Southern California has proved the old axiom “crime doesn’t pay”—not much anyway. Authorities in Riverside County told the Press-Enterprise a woman armed with a semiautomatic pistol robbed 11 people at gunpoint at a grocery store and walked away with a whole $6 for her larcenous efforts. The robber, described as a Hispanic woman in her 20s, confronted 10 customers inside La Chicanita Market shortly before 3 p.m last Tuesday and demanded money. On her way out the door, she ran into another customer entering the store. She robbed him, too. According to a written statement by Deputy Herlinda Valenzuela, “The suspect obtained approximately $6 from the victims and left.” Luckily, the woman didn’t discharge her weapon—someone could have been hurt, and her profit margin would have plunged after figuring in the cost of the bullet.

Dateline: Kansas—Need further proof we’re living in tough economic times? Authorities in Wichita say an injured man who was pulled over during a traffic stop told police officers he’d been beaten for using Monopoly money to buy crack. The Wichita Police Department told KSDK-TV in St. Louis the unnamed 33-year-old man was bleeding from his head when he was pulled over last Thursday. The driver admitted he had just tried to purchase several hundred dollars worth of crack cocaine with fake money from a Monopoly game. “The man from whom he bought the drugs was upset and invited him over to his house and upon arrival struck him in the head several times with a handgun and other people jumped into the fray,” police spokesperson George Bassham said. Police said the victim’s injuries were not life-threatening, and that he has stopped cooperating with the investigation. Officers are still searching for the man’s attackers.